A member of the Northern Provincial Council has sent a petition to the Ministry of Defence against the provision of a pistol to NPC Minister Ananthi Sasitharan, alleging that it was against the law to give her a firearm.

The petition, dated July 22 and signed by NPC member Mohamed Ashwin, states that Minister Sasitharan does not have a threat to her life.

The councillor alleges that the defence authorities have not conducted a threat perception study before giving Provincial Minister Sasitharan a pistol.

Sasitharan’s husband was a frontline leader of the LTTE and she, too, had connections with the LTTE, the council member says in his petition. Minister Sasitharan has accused the army of abducting and killing her husband and has filed a case against the army in the Mullaithivu courts to that effect, Ashwin says in his petition.

In such a context, the action taken by the Defence Ministry to issue an official firearm to Minister Sasitharan is against the law, the councillor says in his petition.